GAIA is a worldwide alliance of grassroots organizations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals who recognize that our planet's finite resources, fragile biosphere and the health of people and other living beings are endangered by polluting and inefficient production practices and health-threatening disposal methods.

We oppose incinerators, landfills, and other end-of-pipe interventions.
Our ultimate vision is a just, toxic-free world without incineration. Our goal is clean production and the creation of a closed-loop, materials-efficient economy where all products are reused, repaired or recycled back into the marketplace or nature.
GAIA?s membership-based network brings together more than 650 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in 90 countries, all of whom have signed on to the above shared

vision statement.

Together, we are calling for changes in production, consumption, and waste disposal practices that are core to the goals of the Rio +20 Conference.

To achieve true sustainability and poverty eradication, we need to shift our economic paradigm away from the current ?take-make-waste? system of resource destruction. In its place, we can reclaim long-held human values of resource conservation and equity, caring, trust, justice, and diversity ? and build the local living economies that will be essential to ensuring that life on earth is harmonious with nature while all people?s material needs are met.
Changes in lifestyles and production systems must be global. The affluent, who consume disproportionate resources and are responsible for most pollution, bear a greater responsibility and must take proportionate steps for change.

1- Transform the economy to reclaim resources and revalue community well-being

Create and use development indicators other than GDP--which does not take into account environmental impact, sustainability, equitable distribution of resources, unpaid labor, or quality of life. Stop the export and import of cultures of overconsumption. Emphasize forms and indicators of development that take into account social and environmental well-being, such as those being explored by the OECD and various governments.

Ensure that all products and materials are returned back to the marketplace or nature at the end of the use, emphasizing the ?best and highest use? principle in materials management decisions.
Revive and strengthen rural life and livelihoods, recognizing that growth of urban areas is driven by poverty and concentrates consumption and waste generation.

2- Prevent waste in the first place, and reduce hazardous materials

Reduce the use of Energy, materials and natural resources in the lifecycle of products and packaging, and reduce waste generation, toxicity and pollution by investing in in green chemistry and clean production. Discourage disposable and toxic products and processes.

Promote local economies based on the provision of public use, rental and lending services, and the reuse of products.

Promote extended producer responsibility for products and packaging to inhibit and punish the practice of planned obsolescence or intentional wasting.

4- Ensure best and highest use for organics

Put composting, biogas, and animal feed programs in place that return all organic matter, uncontaminated, to the environment to provide a healthy basis for a toxics-free agriculture. Such programs are critical, given the high percentage of organic material in most metropolitan waste streams.

Avoid using biomass resources for Energy and fuel, creating a demand that will further deplete forestry and soils.

Promote social inclusion in activities related to waste management, particularly the dignification of urban recyclers, fostering the internalization of their positive environmental impacts.

6- Invest in the future we want, and support real solutions through public policy

Guarantee that public funds and international and national legislation support increasing reuse, recycling and composting combined with ecodesign in order to guarantee that any product can be safely repaired, reused and /or recycled at the end of its life.

Shift current subsidies from extraction and waste disposal to resource recovery, creating significantly more jobs, while distributing income more equitably.

Encourage the adoption of materials recovery techniques and processes that are local, safe, and respectful of local and indigenous cultures; where technology transfer occurs, it must respect the sovereignty and rights of local communities.

Give communities real participation in the materials recovery programs; include them in the design, implementation and monitoring of the programs, pay attention to their needs and ideas. Zero waste policies and programs contribute to social cohesion and enable the active participation and involvement of communities in the transformation of development patterns and sustainability building.

8- No incineration! Put technology at the service of people

Phase out incinerators and other end-of-pipe waste technologies, which are expensive, inefficient, and highly hazardous to human health. Such technologies undermine a Zero Waste economy and are incompatible with Zero Waste.